Indian govt refuses to enhance duty on silk yarn & fabrics

07 Aug '14

2 min read

The Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, has not acceded to the request of the Ministry of Textiles to enhance basic customs duty on twisted silk yarn and silk fabrics.

“The Minister of Textiles had requested the Department of Revenue to enhance Basic Customs Duty on Twisted Silk Yarn and Silk fabrics from existing 10% to 15%, in order to protect the domestic industry from cheap imports. The request was not acceded to,” Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Parliament).

According to a recent study titled ‘Future of Indian Silk Industry,’ conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), India’s silk industry is an employment oriented sector as it provides jobs to over 7.6 million people across 51,000 villages operating over 328,000 handlooms and over 45,800 powerlooms with over 814,000 weavers.

Clocking compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about eight per cent, India’s total silk imports have increased from over US$ 124 million in 2000-01 to about $312 million in 2012-13 with raw silk alone comprising for about 73 percent of these imports worth over $227 million, the study mentions.

India depends on silk imports to an extent due to supply shortages to the tune of more than 5,000 mt year. Moreover, consumption of raw silk in India is likely to rise together with growth in per capita income which rose from Rs. 24,143 in 2004-05 to Rs. 39,961 in 2013-14 and also due to increase in consumption expenditure on clothing.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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